Lit
for Literacy
Empowering parents and educators to build powerful, lasting partnerships in literacy so every Oakland child reads on grade level.
800+
families graduated over 4 years
5
district school partners this year
7
charter school partners
90%
of enrolled students meet reading goals
3+
years and growing across Oakland
Our Mission
Lit for Literacy is FIA’s signature campaign to develop parent leaders who partner with schools, understand student reading data, and take collective action so every child reads on grade level.
We envision an Oakland where all schools transparently share schoolwide data, every family knows their child’s ELA proficiency, and families, schools, and educators work together to ensure all students read on grade level.
What We Believe
Family Literacy Leadership Values
Parent Agency
We build the agency and leadership of parents to advocate for their children's educational achievement. Both individually and collectively.
Science-based Reading Instruction
We champion a vision for high-quality schools that includes a science-based approach to reading instruction for every student.
Parents Must Know
Parents must know the academic standards, the data, and their child's academic progress to be full and equal partners in their child's education.
Home - School Partnership
We believe equitable access to quality education takes place when there is strong home-school communication, collaboration, and accountability.
Program Structure
Lit for Literacy is a 10–12 week family leadership development program designed to build lasting capacity. Not just one-time knowledge.
The program includes:
- Four 2-hour in-person sessions
- Home and school application activities between each session to put learning into practice
- One 2.5-hour Family Accountability Walk, where parents observe literacy strategies live in classrooms and identify next steps to make impact school wide
- 1:1 literacy leadership coaching with an FIA organizer and your school’s family facing staff
- Parent-to-parent literacy mentoring
- Monthly parent literacy team meetings and training
- Biweekly check-ins between the school site team and FIA to keep operations running smoothly
Our Partner Schools
Our Program Impact
When families and schools are true partners, students thrive. Here’s what we see when Lit for Literacy is implemented:
- 100% of parents know their child’s reading level and grade-level expectations
- 50% increase in collaboration and communication between educators and parents
- 85% of parents practice with their child at least 4x/week
- 90% of students whose parents are enrolled meet their reading acceleration goals
Parent Testimonial
Elisa Saavedra – Parent at Allendale Elementary
Elisa Saavedra watched her kindergarten son struggle to maintain attention during reading time at home.
“It was really hard to focus and keep focused,” she said. “Even the books that have one sentence per page and are four pages long.”
After applying strategies from the Families in Action Lit for Literacy workshops at Allendale Elementary, she observed an immediate transformation. “I did it for a few days during break,” Elisa said. “And then, on like day three, he was reading a book by himself. It was really cool.”
Seeing this breakthrough with her own child made her consider the impact Lit for Literacy could have on the broader Allendale community. “I feel like if there were more parents involved in it, then more kids would be ahead than where they currently are,” she said.